PostgreSQL and the SQL Standard

PostgreSQL is one of the most standards-compliant databases available. Talk discusses the impact that PostgreSQL has made on the SQL Standard and the features PostgreSQL has implemented from the SQL Standard, as well as upcoming features in PG14 and beyond.

Automated database migration testing

In a heavily-loaded project, any change implies non-zero risks of downtime or performance degradation. We constantly see how system complexity, number of database nodes, deployments per week constantly grow. How grows the level of automatization of various activities in CI/CD pipelines, containers, Kubernetes.

Meanwhile, when we look at the topic of testing of database changes–from trivial index creation to complex, almost "surgical" operations like converting int4 PK to int8 one in a multi-terabyte database under load–here we observe an obvious lag in technology and methodology development. In the best case, the changes are verified and approved visually, and here it all depends on the level of experience and tiredness of the reviewer.

In this talk, we will look at how we (Postgres.ai) solve this problem using our solution, Database Lab:

• instant provisioning of independent thin clones of multi-terabyte databases, ready to be used for testing,
• integration with existing CI/CD solutions and workflow,
• collection of metrics that are the most useful for decision support on whether or not each database migration has to be approved (and even fully automated rejection of the most dangerous actions).

Managing moving objects data with MobilityDB

MobilityDB is a moving object database extension to PostgreSQL and PostGIS. It has types and functions for storing an querying geospatial trajectories, as first class citizens. The main type is called tgeompoint (temporal geometry point). It represents a complete movement track of a geometry point, such as a car, a bird, or a person. The function speed(tgeompoint) computes the time varying speed of the object, as a tfloat (temporal float). Similar to these examples, MobilityDB has 6 temporal types, and over 300 functions. As such, it is a function-rich platform for Mobility Data Management.

In this tutorial you will:

• learn about moving object databases
• write MobilityDB SQL queries and explore a database of geospatial trajectories
• walk through the different type, indexes, and functions of MobilityDB.

Trying to gain peace of mind by using constraints

There's a common delusion that constraints should never be used as they affect performance in a negative way, interfere with regular work, and are, all in all, useless. The database is commonly perceived as just a storage without any logic. I'll explain why it isn't so and what this careless approach may lead to.